Network Administrator Knowledgebase

When you start Windows Update on your Windows 2008 R2 (or Windows 2008, or Windows 7) machine, you can see in the middle of the window it says “You receive updates: For Windows Only“.
Maybe it’s OK for somebody, but….not for me :).
If you have MS SQL Server or Exchange Server (or any other Microsoft product) installed on this machine, you probably would like to see (I definitely want to see :)) “Windows Update” checks for updates for all products, not JUST for Windows.

So, the easy way to fix this “issue” and get a message: “You receive updates: For Windows and other products from Microsoft Update” is to go to http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-US and accept agreements needed to get Microsoft Update.

Microsoft allowed to build Bootable USB Drive with Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 on it.
Here is an official manual how to do that: USB creation process detailed.
You can download a GUI that should simplify the creation process from MSDN web site, but for whatever reason this GUI doesn’t work for me (I spend a lot of hours on it. Maybe it’ll work for you).

So, because I had problems with this GUI, I decided to build my own automotive process :). I’ve built a script that does all steps from official MS document and compiled it into EXE file.

Controlling access to web site content based on URL segments or request metadata.

The installation package includes several additional components and hotfixes required by URL rewriter. Refer to the KB articles for the hotfixes to get more details. In order to apply the hotfixes correctly without restarting the server, it is recommended that the WAS service is stopped before installing URL Rewrite Module. The following hotfixes will be installed with URL Rewrite Module:

Many organizations use Network Load Balancing (NLB). Some times clients may experience intermittent connectivity failures when they try to communicate with a server that is part of this NLB cluster. A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing the problem described in this article. This is a link to KB article I’m referring to: KB960916.

Microsoft announced 71-663: Pro: Designing and Deploying Messaging Solutions with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010. This is a beta exam. You can take it since Dec, 1 till Dec 21, 2009. Registration available at Prometric website. You can use the following code for this examine: EPROJ

Many components are involved in the transport of messages through the Exchange Server 2010 mail flow pipeline. The Hub Transport server role diagram can help you understand the role each component plays in the processing of messages that enter the Exchange 2010 mail flow pipeline. Exchange administrators can use this information to help diagnose mail flow problems. The Hub Transport extensibility diagram can help you understand how the agents process a message that is in the Exchange 2010 mail flow pipeline. Developers can use this information to help create third-party agents and applications to work with Exchange 2010.

Microsoft Exchange team on theire blog published really nice and informative article, Transitioning Client Access to Exchange Server 2010. This article explains how to Transitioning an Exchange 2003 and / or Exchange 2007 Environment to Exchange 2010. Do not start your transition before reading this article!

The Microsoft VHD Test Drive Program provides customers with an enhanced server-based software evaluation experience that’s faster, better supported and more flexible. You can now access the entire catalog of pre-configured Microsoft and partner products and solutions in the VHD format and start evaluating and testing today from www.microsoft.com/vhd.